IRL race lacks drawing power

Thursday, April 13, 2000 | 10:44 a.m.

As evidenced by last weekend's near sellout of a National Hot Rod Association event, Las Vegas Motor Speedway relies heavily on the Southern California market for the success of its races.

Of the estimated 30,000 who attended Sunday's final eliminations at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, more than half came from outside Nevada. Although LVMS general manager Chris Powell said tickets were sold to customers from 34 states, the majority came from California.

And that came as no surprise to Powell.

"Southern California is a key market for this entire community -- and you can tell that just by sitting out on I-15 on Friday and Sunday," Powell said, referring to the traffic that clogs the main arterial between Las Vegas and Southern California on the weekends.

While LVMS had little trouble filling its drag strip for the inaugural NHRA event and the 127,000-seat superspeedway for its annual NASCAR Winston Cup event, getting people to come out for the annual Indy Racing League stop has proven more difficult.

After drawing more than 65,000 to the inaugural IRL event in the fall of 1996, the upstart open-wheel racing series has failed to attract more than 35,000 in the subsequent three races.

While Californians flock to Las Vegas for the Winston Cup, NHRA and World of Outlaws events each year, they aren't wearing out the asphalt on I-15 to take in an Indy-car race. Advance ticket sales for next Saturday's Vegas Indy 300, according to sources, are hovering around the 2,000 mark.

Powell said the reason for the IRL's attendance problems in Las Vegas -- and at tracks other than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (for the Indy 500) and Texas Motor Speedway -- can easily be explained.

"First of all, you don't have an IRL race in California," Powell said. "Secondly, the IRL still is young and they're still finding their way.

"And, I don't think there's any secret that open-wheel racing, with the divide between CART and IRL, has hurt the sport. Between the IRL's youth and the division in open-wheel racing ... those two things give you the reason for the IRL's attendance challenges."

LVMS' other challenges in ticket sales for this year's race may stem from the fact that the Vegas Indy 300 is being held on the weekend immediately following CART's hugely successful Grand Prix of Long Beach, and the fact that the Speedway already has hosted two major racing events in the past seven weeks.

"With moving the event to the spring this year, we got a later start on promoting the event from last year, when it was the first major event at the Speedway for several months," Powell said.

"Now here we are coming in seven weeks after the Winston Cup race and two weeks after a very successful NHRA event."

Powell said the IRL event at LVMS last year enjoyed a "tremendous" walk-up crowd on the day of the event, which gives him hope that next Saturday's event may yet prove to be a success.

In addition to the 208-lap Vegas Indy 300, fans purchasing tickets to the race also will be able to see the rock band Smash Mouth perform in concert, followed by a NASCAR Winston West Series stock car race.

"When there's a prevailing opinion that there will be no sellout, fans a lot of times will decide to wait until race day or the day before the race (to buy their tickets)," Powell said.

"One thing I'm sure of, I think (the Vegas Indy 300) will be a good race and I think everybody that does choose to come will say, 'My goodness, that's a fun form of motor sports to watch.' "